Samsung is shutting down apps that spam your notifications with ads 🔕

Cliquez ici pour lire en français

There are small digital irritants that wear you down more than we care to admit. A weather app pushing crypto investments, a calculator recommending a mobile game, a random utility turning every notification into a mini billboard — your phone starts feeling less like a tool and more like a noisy marketplace. Samsung seems to have had enough of that background static, and has introduced a feature designed to restore some order to the Galaxy experience.

How it works 🔍

The company has added an option called « Block apps with excessive ads » inside its Device Care system app, introduced with version 13.8.80.7. The tool specifically targets apps that send ad notifications too frequently, and can automatically place them in deep sleep mode to stop them from continuing to disturb the user.

@KAILASH61229293 sur X

The concept is straightforward enough, even if the mechanics behind it are fairly clever. Samsung offers two levels of blocking: a basic mode, which draws on the company’s own database to flag apps already identified as overly intrusive; and a smart mode, which actively analyzes incoming notifications to determine whether an app is genuinely abusing ad alerts.

When an app crosses the tolerance threshold, it can be placed in « deep sleep. » This isn’t a deletion, nor a conventional full block: the app remains installed, but loses the ability to send notifications, and its background activity is significantly curtailed. Users also retain the option to manually reactivate any app at any time.

Where to find the option ⚙️

For now, Samsung has tucked this new feature into the phone’s maintenance settings. According to available sources, you’ll need to navigate to Settings → Device Care → Maintenance Report → Excessive Usage Alerts to see which apps are affected.
The rollout appears to be gradual, distributed via the Galaxy Store, and may also depend on One UI 8.5 according to several sources — which means not all Galaxy users will receive it simultaneously. In practice, keep a close eye on Device Care updates to check whether the feature has landed on your device.

A good idea… with a caveat 💡

On paper, the promise is clear: fewer junk notifications, less fatigue, and greater control over what surfaces on your screen. It’s the kind of setting that won’t make headlines, but will genuinely improve the day-to-day experience. For many users, this will likely prove far more useful than the next flashy feature that gets forgotten three days after launch.

That said, there’s one reservation worth flagging: Samsung acknowledges that the system isn’t foolproof and can occasionally misread notifications. The tool is promising — but it still has real-world proving to do, especially in an environment where some apps are remarkably skilled at blurring the line between useful information and thinly veiled advertising.

In a world where smartphones already talk far too much, teaching them to turn the volume down feels almost like a form of progress. And if this feature rolls out smoothly at scale, it could become one of those quiet little settings you enable once — and silently thank for months.

Do ad notifications get under your skin as much as those intrusive mobile pop-ups? Let us know whether Samsung is heading in the right direction.